Learn more about the brain benefits of youth sports by scrolling through each part of the brain

Participating in sports throughout childhood strengthens the development of executive functioning. Executive functioning skills include decision making, planning, and focus ability (matured in the frontal lobe). Physical activity and high levels of aerobic fitness have positive connections to brain structures involved in these processes, specifically gray matter volume and white matter microstructure. White matter microstructure is vital for cognition and influences risk-taking and other forms of executive functioning surrounding the Frontal Lobe. While this brain property grows naturally with age, there is an increased quality associated with athletic participation during childhood (Chaddock-Heyman et al., 2018). Executive functioning also concerns intelligence, academic achievement, and mental health, all domains that sports have been found to both directly and indirectly influence (Ludyga et al., 2018).

Testing physical activity’s effects on white and gray matter microstructure in children, the research study found that with an added after school fitness program, there was increased maturation of white matter tracts (Chaddock-Heyman et al., 2018). White matter structures create and strengthen brain networks, improving cognitive functioning. The research concluded that aerobic exercise promotes growth factor production, which stimulates neuron growth, synaptic plasticity, and axonal pruning/regeneration (Chaddock-Heyman et al., 2018).

Physical activity enhances the development of structurally compact white matter fibers as well as increased myelination, which strengthens the Corpus Callosum as it develops into a strong connector between hemispheres (Chaddock-Heyman et al., 2018). Additional findings suggest that aerobic exercise influences molecular and cellular changes in cerebrovascular health and cerebrovascular perfusion, increasing the brain’s ability to receive oxygen and nutrients (Chaddock-Heyman et al., 2018).

Physical activity throughout childhood also has also proven to have positive impacts on the Hippocampus. In addition to vascular benefits, aerobic exercise also fosters hippocampal cell proliferation, gliogenesis, cell survival and greater perfusion (Chaddock-Heyman et al., 2016). These results are independent of age, sex, and hippocampal volume, indicating that improved microcirculation is consistent with increased physical activity. Enhanced blood flow additionally influences learning and memory abilities, another developmental benefit of sports participation in childhood (Chaddock-Heyman et al., 2016).

Physical activity throughout childhood also engages the Cerebellum. Apart from stimulation of the main coordinative function, fitness also encourages social development in this location. With eye-movement specifically, children observe occipital information and use it to gather gestures and expressions (Olson et al., 2023). As children begin to understand the patterns of emotion associated with social cues, they apply it to their own expression. Increased receptivity of others’ feelings contributes to an accumulated development of empathy and other traits; characteristics that are frequent in team activities. Participation in youth sports clearly has indirect benefits beyond the fitness itself.